Little Heroes
by Ember-Star-Lord
Summary: When a lab experiment goes wrong, The Avengers turn into children and Nick is the only one who can watch them until a cure is made.
1. Chapter 1

It was a normal day at Stark Tower- well. It was as normal as it would ever get that is... Tony and Bruce were in the lab just working on different experiments, not really sure what they would end up doing. But they wanted something to do, they didn't want to be stuck downstairs watching boring day time television... No, no, that wouldn't be the most fun thing for two scientists to be doing at this moment. They didn't want to be like the others who were lazing around all day waiting for a crime to just pop up. It's been two weeks and nothing to report on.

"What do you think this one will do?" Tony asked Bruce as they had just finished making a new experiment, not knowing what in the hell it would end up doing. Did they really want to test it? Bruce didn't, but Tony sure as hell did.

"Probably burn a hole through your stomach," Bruce said simply with a small shrug then turned his back to Tony while reading something on his chart.

"What a nerd..." Tony muttered as he looked down at the purple liquid that they had just created. Should he really try drinking this stuff or not? The last time he drank an unknown experiment he had gotten extremely sick. No. He wouldn't try it out on himself... "Hey, Thor? Can you come in here for a minute? " Tony called into the other room and Bruce looked at him wondering what Tony was up to now.

Soon, Thor entered the room, having to duck his head down under the doorway so he wouldn't end up hitting his head against it. "Man of Iron," he voice boomed through the room. "What can I assist you with?"

"I told you, big guy. I'm not really made of iron..." Tony turned around and grabbed the purple liquid that he and Bruce made and held it out to him. "Can you do me a favour and drink this for me?"

Thor gawked at it before taking the container that was very small in his hand. "What is it?" He asked before sniffing it. It didn't really have any type of smell.

"That's what we want to figure out, big guy. Drink it and we'll see what it'll do."

"No way!" Bruce snapped at Tony. "We don't know what it'll do! It could kill him for all we know..." Bruce said then crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Nothing mortal can kill me," Thor said.

"So you'll drink it?" Tony asked, a smirk dancing on his face. "I'll give you five bucks if you drink it."

Thor sniffed it again before shrugging. He was just about to take a sip of it, but at the last minute Bruce steppes in and snatched it from him. "No, we're not sure what this could do yet. We should test it a little more-" Before Bruce could say anything more about this, purple smoke filled from the purple liquid and was quickly spreading through all of the rooms of Stark Tower. "See what you did?!" Bruce snapped through his couching fit.

"I didn't do anything!" Tony snapped as he was also in a coughing fit.

"What's going on?" Nat demanded as she and the others ran Into the room, she was covering her face with her hand as she was trying to get her coughing under control.

"I don't-" Before Tony could answer, he fell to the floor unconscious. Same thing happened with everyone else after a good few seconds. Nobody had a clue about what was going on...

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><p>A few hours after The Avengers had fallen unconscious, they were slowly starting to wake up. They were feeling fine, but we're they really fine? That was a hard question to answer at the moment. Stark Tower had cleared from the smoke, so that was a good sign, right? They would just have to wait and see for sure.<p>

Steve was the first one who had woken up from this. He sat up and yawned and stretched as if everything was normal when he realised it really wasn't... The first thing he noticed was his hands, they were a lot smaller than he had remembered them to be... Where they always like this? He asked himself before standing up. That was different too; he was extremely short now. What the hell?

He walked over to Tony who was still laying on the floor. Steve gasped loudly when he realized that Tony was now a child. A child?! Seriously, what was going on? "Tony?" Steve said when he realized that all of them -including himself- were now children. "Tony!" He shouted, shaking his shoulder to wake him up.

After a few moments, Tony started to stir in his sleep before he actually woke up. "What?!" Tony snapped, clearly not a morning person..."What do you want-" Tony stopped talking when he saw that Steve was now a child. "What the hell happened to you?!"

You tell me!" Tony looked down at himself to see that he was also a child like him, he screamed and quickly stood up. "We're all children, I'm sure it's your fault!"

"My fault?! It could have been Bruce's fault for all you know..." He snapped back as he crossed his arms in frustration. "Look, Bruce and I will find a cure for this."

"By when...?"

"I dunno..."

"Right... Look, we can't expect for all of use to take care of ourselves. We need to call Nick and tell him about what happened-"

"No!"

"What?"

"He cannot know!"

"Too bad." Steve walked out of the lab with Tony following behind him, he was looking for a phone while Tony was trying to talk him out of calling Nick. "Get off me!" Steve yelled at Tony when he tackled him.

"I'm not letting you call Nick!"

Steve shoved Tony off from him, pushing him a little harder than he had realized, it had caused Tony to fall into a wall. Taking the chance he had, Steve stood up and grabbed the phone from the table and dialed Nick's number. It rang three times before Nick answered.

"Hello?" Nick's voice came from the other side of the line.

"Nick! It's Steve!"

"Steve?"

"There was a lab problem and we're all kids now! You have to help us!"

"I'll be there soon."


	2. Chapter 2

"...calm down and tell me everything that happened," Nick said as slowly and calmly as he could without freaking out the kids anymore than they already were. They were all whining about being children again and arguing and it truly was getting on Nick's nerves rather quickly... "Guys..." He tried getting their attention again, but no luck. They weren't even paying attention to him at this point anymore.

"This is so totally your fault!" Nat said as she got in Tony's face. "If you wouldn't have messed around with all that we wouldn't have become seven years old, do you get that? Can't you get that through your thick skull!?"

Tony crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at her yelling. "You know what's not going to fix this mess, Nat? You shouting at me! What's done is done, and nothing will change that until someone finds a cure for it!" Tony paused and then looked up at Nick after a few moments of thinking. "Someone _is _trying to find the cure for us, right?" Nick nodded. "Great. So keep your mouth shut!"

Without any thinking whatsoever, Nat pushed her fist back then punched Tony right in the jaw. "What was that for?!" He demanded as he was rubbing his face where he had gotten punch. "That seriously hurt!"

"You! You're annoying me!"

"We all just need to calm down," Bruce said, trying to break up the fighting. All the negativity in the room was making him seriously uncomfortable and giving him some anxiety. "Everything will end up okay, we just have to wait. Okay?"

"I wasn't aware you could see into the future! " Tony snapped.

Thor tilted his head to the side in confusion as he didn't understand what Tony meant. "You can see into the future, Bruce?" He asked with total seriousness in his tone. "You must teach me how to do that. "

"No, Thor. I can't do that..." Bruce rolled his eyes and then sat down on the floor. He sighed and looked up at everyone else.

Clint crossed his arms and moved his bangs from his eyes. "We're going to be stuck like this..." He muttered to himself, hoping that nobody would have heard him. If someone did he was sure that another argument would break out.

"Have some hope, Clint," Steve told him. "I'm sure that someone will figure this out. Someone will fine a cure for us all and we'll be okay." He added.

"Whatever you say... "

"Hey! " Nick shouted, gathering everyones attention and he wanted them all to shut up and stop screaming and yelling. "I'll have some scientists work on the cure for all of you. Did you happen to write down the chemical equation? "

"Right here," Bruce answered with a nod. He walked over to the lab table and had to stand on his toes so he could reach the clipboard with the chemical equations written down on it. "This is it," he said then handed the clipboard to Nick.

Taking the clipboard, Nick looked through the paper and there were about four other chemical equations written on there as well and none of them were marked which one was which. "Which one is it?" He asked Bruce and Tony. The kids looked at each other and shrugged.

"Not sure..." Tony admitted with a small shrug.

"We didn't have the time to mark them down," Bruce also added.

Nick threw his arms down at his side with a sigh of frustration and an eye roll. He shook his head as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You've got to be kidding me..." He huffed. "It's going to take a lot longer to find the cure now."

"Of course it's going to take longer," Clint whined.

"It's fine, it's fine... Everything will be fine."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Finally got back into writing again. I have finally beat writers block. **_

* * *

><p>The first thing that Nick decided to do was go to the store with the kids so they could pick out more age appropriate clothes for themselves, but he knew that was going to be a huge issue. They acted like giant five year olds as adults, now they there were actually children... Well... Lets say that it's going to be so much more frustrating to watch over them. Nick would have to try all that he could to not get angry about all of this and try and keep his cool.<p>

The first thing that Nick did when he walked into the Super-Store with the kids at his side screaming and yelling was grab a cart for he had a place to put everything.

"I want to get inside the cart!" Tony yelled as he tried to get inside the cart as Nick was pushing it, it had almost caused him to get his small feet to get ran over by the wheels. He was trying to climb inside, but he was far too short for that. Nick sighed and just kept going with Tony hanging off from the side of the cart. "Nick! Didn't you hear me? I want-"

"I heard you," Nick interrupted, accidentally snapping at the child which he totally didn't mean to do. "Just walk like everybody else, would you?" Tony gasped loudly at what Nick had just said, he was acting like he was insulted greatly. "What?"

"Walk? You expect me to _walk_? Are you insane?" Nick stopped the cart and glared at Tony. He didn't like the glare so he hopped off of the cart and started walking with the others and didn't say another word about it.

"I don't want to hear another word coming out of your mouth, Stark," Nick snapped again before walking towards the back of the store were all of the children's stuff was -including where the toys were at. Tony crossed his arms and pouted in frustration as he followed Nick and the others without saying anything.

The whole time they were walking throughout the store, Thor was just so curious and puzzled about almost everything that he passed by; he didn't understand the uses of it all and wanted to figure it out but Nick was walking away too fast. Well... He knew where they were all going, right? When he was done looking at the items he would just meet up with them. The only one who noticed that Thor was walking off was Tony, he smirked evilly to himself as he wasn't going to say anything as he wasn't suppose to say another word. Even as a seven year old he was still a smart ass.

The only two who were actually behaving on their shopping trip was Nat and Bruce. They haven't said anything the whole time and were sticking close to Nick and the cart so they wouldn't get lost. They didn't really feel like getting yelled at by Nick as he could get pretty scary, but also they just wanted a cure as fast as they could get it. Steve would have been acting on his best behaviour as well, but Clint kept trying to push all of his buttons. He kept picking on him and everything and it was seriously starting to annoy Steve.

"Knock it off, would you!" Steve finally snapped at Clint who kept touching his face. Steve slapped his hand away and moved away from him but Clint kept following him. "Clint! Stop!" Steve tried pushing him away but it didn't work.

Nick sighed in frustration. "Clint, I swear to God you will have to sit in this cart the whole time if you don't knock it off!" Just hearing that made Clint stop at once, riding in the shopping cart was like the worst punishment for most kids at the store. Tony glared at Nick, why wouldn't he let him get in the cart but threatened to put Clint in there if he kept misbehaving.

Tony glanced at Steve who was walking next to him and grinned to himself. He balled his hand into a fist and punched Steve in the stomach. "OW!" Steve yelled, he was prepared for that...

"Tony!" Nick yelled.

"I get to ride in the cart now?" Tony asked, he had an innocent look on his face as if he didn't do anything wrong.

"Hell no." Tony frowned. Nick turned around to face the kids who were all standing together in a small group. "Alright, go ahead and pick out some clothes and toys and whatever else you need- Wait a minute..." Nick started mentally counting the kids that were standing in front of him. One was missing. "Wait... Who is missing?" He couldn't put his finger on it right away.

Nat looked around and quickly noticed that Thor was away from the group. "Thor."

"Thor-" Nick sighed again for what seemed like for the 1000th time that shopping trip it seemed like. "He must have ran off..." Tony smirked again as he crossed his arms across his chest, he didn't say anything about where Thor had went. "Alright... Just go. I'm going to find Thor." Nick left the cart for the kids to put their stuff in while he was gone.

"No screwing off," Nat told the rest of them.

"Psh. You're the boss of us," Tony said before turning back around and went into the toy aisle with Steve, Bruce, and Clint following behind him. Nat rolled her eyes and went towards the clothing aisle, dragging the cart behind her.

"Look at this!" Clint yelled out happily as he found a toy bow and plastic arrow set on one of the shelves. He ripped the packaging apart so he could play with it.

"I don't think you're suppose to do that..." Steve told him just as Clint took the toy out of the box.

"Shut up, Steve. You're like, no fun."

"He's kinda right..." Tony agreed when he saw the hurt look on Steve's face. He walked past Bruce and took a board game off from the shelve and opened the box. "This is also lame." He threw the box across the aisle, the game board and game pieces scattered everywhere, probably losing some in the process.

"Tony..." Bruce sighed as he had started picking up the pieces, he would have felt bad if it was just left like that. "Y'know, this isn't how you're suppose to act in the store."

"Yea, but we're kids now so we have a free pass to do this."


	4. Chapter 4

"...Alright... Alright... Thanks... Bye..." Nick hung up the call he had taken on his phone. It was the lab workers who were trying to figure out the cure for whatever had turned the Avengers into children. So far there wasn't anything that they could find that could undo what had happened, but they were still looking into it. They weren't going to give up so easily, that's for sure. He sighed loudly and watched as Clint and Steve were play fighting, it hasn't even been a full day and he was already sick of them.

Steve pushed Clint off from him and looked up at Nick. "So? Did they find out anything?"

"Unfortunately... No..." Clint tackled Steve again. "Hey, hey, hey! What did I tell you five minutes ago about fighting?"

"Who cares..." Clint said with an eye roll.

Nick narrowed his eyes at him. "Do you want me to put you over my knee? Because I'll do that if I have to."

Clint gasped and quickly stood up. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Are you testing me?" Clint shook his head quickly and sat down on the couch so he wouldn't end up annoying Nick anymore. "That goes for all of you, do you understand that?" They all said they understood, but Thor had no idea what was going on but he agreed anyways since whatever Nick was talking about seemed to stress the others out, he didn't want whatever that was to happen to him. "Good. I'm not going to be dealing with brats this whole time." Nick paused and glared at Tony who was the one who had caused the most trouble around here.

"We'll see how that goes," Tony said then stuck his tongue out at Nick.

"I'm being serious, Stark. I will not deal with you and your nonsense. Do you understand?"

"I already said I-"

"Do you. Understand?" Nick asked in a slower tone.

Tony rolled his eyes and sat back on the couch. "Yes! I understand!"

"Good."

"I'm hungry..." Nat said, putting her hands over her stomach. "What's for dinner?"

"Dinner?" That was something that Nick hadn't thought about. What was he going to do about dinner? He never actually had to cook for children before and had no clue on what they would want. "Um... What do you want?"

"A meal fit for a king!" Thor shouted.

The kids were shouting out dinner ideas, but it all seemed like a little too much for Nick to cook. What did kids eat...? Nick thought of something. "How about grilled cheese and tomato soup?" The kids agreed that it seemed to be a reasonable meal. "Good. You all stay out of the kitchen while I make it, okay? No fighting." He glared at Clint and Steve again. "No pranks either." He glared at Tony before walking into the kitchen to make the brats their dinner.

"Now what are we suppose to do while we wait?" Tony complained to the others, crossing his arms as he wasn't the type of person who liked waiting for anything. "According to Nick, we're not allowed to have any fun."

Nat narrowed her eyes at him. "Yea, because pranking and fighting with each other is _soooo _fun," she said sarcastically with an eye roll.

"Whatever..."

* * *

><p>Once dinner was made, the kids were all sitting around the dinning room table, no matter how much they wanted to sit out in the living room with Nick to eat dinner he wouldn't allow it. This was so frustrsting. Why weren't they allowed to go out there to sit? Oh. Maybe it was because they would probably make a huge mess with it most likely...<p>

Tony was sitting up on his knees so he could see over the table. Why do I have to be so short...? He thought to himself as he was dragging his spoon through the soup. He said and looked around at the others who were being perfect children and eating their food. "You guys are nerds," he told them.

"A what?" Thor questioned, still not understanding what that meant even though he has been called that many times by Tony.

"You're a nerd!" Clint countered with and then crossed his arms in frustration.

"Tony... please don't start anything..." Bruce said politely with a small sigh and Steve agreed.

"Shut up, Tony. Just because we're not into getting in trouble all the time like you doesn't mean we're nerds!" Nat snapped at him, looking up from her soup.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Now shut up and-" Before Nat could finish her sentence, Tony threw his soup at her, it was all stuck in her hair and face. While Tony and Clint were laughing about it, she cleaned her face off and glared at them. "You are so dead..." She said.


End file.
